Apr 19 Airbnb shutters Russia

Airbnb has shuttered its Russia subsidiary and Russian operations will now be run out of the sharing economy’s Berlin, Dublin and London. Airbnb, which launched a local outfit five years ago, has not had a physical presence in Moscow since 2015 when operations were shifted to Berlin.

While Airbnb maintains the move is purely procedural, Russian business daily Kommersant is reporting that the company is concerned about certain legal and tax considerations relating to running a Russia-based business.

“If Airbnb closes its subsidiary in Russia, then all the money and data will be stored abroad,” a source told Kommersant.

However, Airbnb told specialist magazine The Tech Portal that it remained committed to the market and that it regularly reviewed the location of its offices “to best reflect the changing needs of our business.”

The US-based home-sharing platform last month announced that it planning to double its investment in China. The local outfit also got a name change to ‘Aibiying’ which translates as the sentiment ‘welcome each other with love’.